The two seniors each scored 4 goals — with Jurney assisting on 2 of Aquino’s scores — to lead the Vikings to a 9-0 victory over North Lenoir in the first round of the NCHSAA 3-A soccer playoffs.

The match ended with 5:15 left due to the 9-goal mercy rule on Aquino’s final goal, sending White Oak (17-4) into a second-round game Thursday night at Cleveland (18-6), which beat West Craven 3-0 on Tuesday.

The Vikings are the second seed from the Coastal Conference while North Lenoir (9-12-2) was the fourth seed from the Eastern Carolina Conference.

“Both of them (Aquino and Jurney) are very attacking-minding kids, and with them being willing to put passes together in bunches they just kind of mesh a little bit,” White Oak coach Buddy Carroll said. “Gabe is a little bit different in that he can dribble from distances, and Troy is one of those guys who gets behind you quicker. They play a different game, which helps us as a team.”

Jurney, a forward, has been the Vikings’ leading scorer all season. He finished the regular season with 27 goals and 7 assists. Aquino is a midfielder who has been asked to be more of a distributor this season. He entered the playoffs with 12 goals and 10 assists.

Yet either Aquino or Jurney can strike quickly at any time.

“He (Jurney) plays left and I’m right and so it helps because we can go from side to side,” Aquino said. “I get most of the transition and he’s more of the finisher.”

Jurney, who transferred from Lejeune last year, said he and Aquino feed off each other on the pitch.

“I think we just play well together,” Jurney said. “We know that each other will make the runs for the other and always help each other. Since we know we will always be there, it’s like a sixth sense.”

Aquino certainly gave the Vikings a sense of confidence when he scored just 1:33 into the match to give White Oak a 1-0 lead. It came off a short crossing pass from Jurney.

“It definitely gave us momentum,” Aquino said. “We were hyped coming into the game and, after that, it was goal after goal.”

Actually, the Vikings had to wait another 19 minutes to extend their lead to 2-0. That finally happened when Aquino scored off another assist from Jurney, who then scored an unassisted goal seven minutes later to make it 3-0.

Three minutes after that, Aquino scored his third goal. Jurney found the net one more time in the first half off an assist from Victor Bernard before goalkeeper Josh Helms added a goal. Helms’ goal came after he rebounded his own penalty kick shot that hit the crossbar.

“Our guys played hard tonight and possessed the ball really well,” Carroll said. “I think they were a little more hungry for the playoffs to start.”

However, White Oak seemed to put things on cruise control in the second half, not finding the net again until Jurney scored off an assist from Alec Gustafson with 10:30 left in the match.

That goal sparked the Vikings, who then decided they wanted the game to end via the mercy rule, which was implemented for the first time this year.

“All season we’ve been trying to get a 9-0 win,” Aquino said.

The Vikings finally got one after Jurney scored his fourth goal with 9:50 left and Aquino scored his fourth goal about four minutes later.

“After it was 6-0 for a long time, we started getting frustrated and the game started to get physical,” Jurney said. “We just needed to finish it. All it needed was one (to push the team).”

But while Jurney and Aquino gave White Oak all the scoring it needed in its postseason opener, they aren’t alone in the attack. Jurney knows he and Aquino are complemented by others.

“Everybody plays their role,” Jurney said. “If they (defenders) mark me and Gabe, we can just lay it off to Alec, Elu (Riley), Victor or Kevin (Gonzalez).”

With all these weapons joining Aquino and Jurney, White Oak was clearly better than North Lenoir, which did threaten to score an equalizing goal a few times in the first half while the Vikings led just 1-0.

“They (Vikings) are a good team and they pass well and don’t make many mistakes, which we did,” North Lenoir coach Donell Garris said. “We made too many mistakes and they capitalized. We pushed and controlled some and had quality shots and some scoring opportunities, we just didn’t finish and they did.”

Helms finished with 4 saves for the Vikings — all coming in the first half. Two of those saves were shots off headers for the Hawks.

“We just played pretty good defense tonight,” Carroll said. “We kept our composure and didn’t make any bad decisions in the back.”